\\INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 17\\

This chapter is a further prophecy of the destruction of the Jews,
with the causes of it, their sins, as their idolatry, which was
notorious; of which their own consciences, their altars, and their
children, were witnesses, \\#Jer 17:1,2\\ for which they are
threatened with the spoil of their substance and treasure, and
discontinuance in their land, \\#Jer 17:3,4\\ as also their
confidence in an arm of flesh, which brought the curse of God upon
them, when such are blessed that trust in him; and the difference
between those that trust in men and those that trust in the Lord is
illustrated by very apt similes, \\#Jer 17:5-8\\, the source of which
vain confidence is the wicked heart of man, known to none but God,
\\#Jer 17:9,10\\ and the vanity of it is exposed by a partridge
sitting on eggs without hatching them, \\#Jer 17:11\\, and their
departure from God, by trusting in the creature, and in outward
things, is aggravated by their temple being the throne and seat of
the divine Majesty; by what God is to his people that trust in him;
and by the shame and ruin that follow an apostasy from him,
\\#Jer 17:12,13\\, wherefore the prophet, sensible of his own backslidings,
prays to be healed and saved by the Lord, who should have all the
praise and glory, \\#Jer 17:14\\ and then relates the scoffs of the
people at the word of God by him, another cause of their ruin;
declares his own innocence and integrity; prays for protection and
security from fear in a time of trouble; and for confusion, terror,
and destruction to his persecutors, \\#Jer 17:15-18\\, then follows
an order to him from the Lord, to go and stand in the gate of the
city, and exhort all ranks of men to the observation of the sabbath,
with directions how to keep it, which had not been observed by their
fathers, and which was another cause of their ruin, \\#Jer 17:19-23\\,
and the chapter is closed with promises of blessings in city, court, and
country, in church and state, should they religiously observe the
sabbath day; but if they profaned it, the city of Jerusalem, and its
palaces, should be burnt with fire, \\#Jer 17:24-27\\.